Garden shade hoop house

[Grub80]

Shelter plants from the harsh sun, frost and pests with this D.I.Y. hoop house that can be adapted to suit gardens of any size.

• The project
• How to grow your own vegetables
• More ideas for your garden

The project

This hoop house is made from conduit lengths joined together by a cross joiner. The conduit is attached to the garden beds by saddle clips. Eyelets were inserted into the shade cloth and hemmed to run another piece of conduit for stability. The shade cloth was attached to the conduits using bungee clips with round bobbles.

The hoop house has been brilliant – our vegies are thriving, with no diseases as the wind can flow through very well. 

The most important concept is that you have to have enough flex to create the bend in the conduit. We used 15ml water pipe. Unfortunately, we built the hoop house first go, and when we installed it, the hoops all broke, so we realised that we had too many cross joiners in it. So, we tried again. We found that increasing the height of the hoop to 2m worked better, but attaching it to the fence with saddle clips at around 1m gave us ample clearance and flex to grow terrific tomatoes this year.

Another trick with the pipe is to make sure you use primer first – the primer allows solvent to weld the fittings together better.

Over winter this year, we removed the shade hoop cover and stored it away for this year's summer ahead. During winter I used crop protection nets for my brassicas. I grew a great crop of cauliflower, broccoli and cabbages with no insect issues and no chemical sprays either.

I then pulled the crop protection cover off and reinstalled the shade cloth cover. We added uprights at the ends and bolted them to the raised garden beds, and used saddle clips attached to the outer hoops for added strength.

Making the initial investment can be costly – around $400 including the shade cloth – but after picking tomatoes from eight plants from November through to March, through the horrendous hot and dry summer we have experienced in South Australia, the hoop house has made a significant saving in just one season.

Our second hoop house is an upmarket version of the first. Learning from our first hoop house, this one is located in a windier part of the garden, hence the stronger frame. I will use the full cover during the winter, and we have made another shade cover for the summer. 

 

Dad installed all the irrigation, so I can just snap a hose on and water the beds without even having to go inside. I’ve planted Brassicas, and installed a crop protection net in the doorframe to keep out pesky moths. I can leave the door rolled up so it doesn’t get too hot. The daytime temperature is around 25º Celsius with the plastic doors and windows open.

How to grow your own vegetables

Horticulturist and Workshop member Noelle has shared a simple step-by-step guide to growing natural produce in your garden.

More ideas for your garden

Improve your garden and the quality of your home-grown fruit and vegetables with clever ideas from the Bunnings Workshop community. You can get inspiration from our Top 10 most popular raised garden beds, Top 10 most popular planter box projects and Top 10 most popular garden makeovers.

[RobPat]

That’s a great looking set up. Great to be pest free. Thanks for sharing. 

[MitchellMc]

Would you be interested in building something like this hoop shade house yourself @RobPat? I'm sure @Grub80 and our knowledgeable members would be keen to assist and provide some pointers.

Let us know if you need any assistance.

Mitchell

[ayman]

HI @Grub80,

I need a hoop house similar to yours, can you build it for me? 

[MitchellMc]

Hi @ayman,

Given that the Bunnings Workshop is an Australian and New Zealand-wide community, it's unlikely that @Grub80 lives close to you and could assist in building your project. I'm sure they and the rest of the community would happily provide advice and guidance, allowing you to build this project yourself. Let us know if you have any questions to assist you in getting started.

Mitchell

[ayman]

Hi grub I need help to assist me with hoop house for my plants please 

[MitchellMc]

Hi @ayman,

You'll need to let us know what questions you have for @Grub80 and our other members to assist. Were there any particular areas of the build that were confusing, or did you need extra information on what products to buy? Perhaps you might like to share a picture of the area you'd like to build the hoop house and let us know the size of the area you wish to cover. Let me know if you need a hand uploading images.

The more information you can provide about the questions you have and the hoop house you'd like to build, the better we'll be able to help.

Mitchell

[mich1972]

@Grub80  Made me very happy to see this pop up !!! I LOVE it. How’s it going ? What are you growing at the moment ? 😊

[Grub80]

Hi @mich1972 @the garden is just changing, to winter, but I love autumn/winter gardening. I planted cauliflowers and broccoli early this year (around February) and am just harvesting them now. I’ve got peas, carrots, onions, leeks, cabbage, more broccoli and cauliflowers and them a few bok choy. And just sown beetroot’s. I’m still harvesting capsicums!

I’ve learned that I only grow food that I like eating, but there’s nothing like going into the garden, picking your food and then cooking THEN eating your creation 👍👍👍

good luck with your growing season!

[mich1972]

Morning @Grub80  I agree with you on that !! Grow what you enjoy eating. Sounds like you have a great Autumn / Winter crop growing. 
I’m in between rotations at the moment. I have currently got a Green Manure Crop growing which I will Hoe back into the soil in a couple of weeks. Then I will plant some winter vegetables. We are just on a regular size suburban block so we don’t have alot of space but it’s better than nothing at all. 

Thank you for the update and looking forward to seeing some photos of your beautiful home grown Edibles xoxo 

[richardingarden]

@Grub80 

I'm interested in building a similar structure to keep birds & possums out of our vegetable garden.  Looking at something about 3.2m wide so the hoops will need to cope with a 1.6m bending radius (ideally less tgan that as i would prefer not to be at the limit)..

Do you have any information on the minimum bend radius of different pipes (e.g. 15mm, 20mm, 25mm PVC) that could be used for the hoops?

[EricL]

Hello @richardingarden 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's marvellous to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your questions about the garden shade hoop house.

From experience, the most flexible of the set is the 15mm diameter pipe. I've seen it bend into a wide "U" shape. But the pipe length was 3 meters, and I don't think it's possible with a shorter length. The following sizes such as the 20mm and 25mm will need to be extended in order for them to bend to be used as a hoop. 

For example, the 20mm diameter sized pipe will need to be at least 6 meters in length as this pipe is much stiffer than the 15mm set. I would conservatively say that the larger pipe diameters will only bend up to 90 degrees or less, but no more than that. Forcing it will produce stress fractures along the body of the PVC pipe.

You'll also need to take into consideration the size of the garden bed. As it goes wider the hoop will need to get taller. You'll notice in the photos that the PVC pipes were joined together to create a hoop tall enough to allow a person to stand inside. Based on that construction method you'll need a minimum of two pipes three meters in length each for every hoop.

PVC can be heated up to so that it bends even further, I don't recommend doing this this as the pipe could kink and fold over due to too much bending stress. 

Let me call on our experienced members @Dave-1, @TedBear and @JoeAzza for their recommendations.

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

[Dave-1]

Afternoon @richardingarden 

I have used electrical 25mm electriocal conduit to go over my garden beds at home. It kinda worked but only provided a meter and a bit due to the smaller arc. Thats all I was interested in at first. Some things to note if using PVC tho

- Sunlight will effect it fast (think a few years)

- There is a LOT of pressure when making something bend and it stays there even after sadddles/screws are put in place. 

- my main culprets I think are birds but prob possums also so I wanted to keep them out.

- The PVC orange 25mm electrical conduit I have feels brittle after a few years and I wouldnt want to try and reuse it (different sized ark type deal)

- I didnt think of joining the 3m lengths together but that could be an option but still keep in mind the kinetic pressure.

- My garden beds are 900mm wide and I had the ark wedged into either side of the the timber footing with a tie beam down the middle of another piece of conduit. Fiddly but held up ok tho overall usefulness I am still not sure of (stopping things eating the plants and crop success).

My next ieteration of protection will be posts and chicken wire to keep out birds/possums and allow bees ect in plus logetivity and not worry about birds getting caught in the netting. Yet to be started

Dave

[Bugs]

@Grub80 

Good Day,

I hope you are well.

Many thanks for sharing. I appreciate you.

I note in some of the photos the green house has a metal pipe frame.

May I please have more details on the construction of the metal pipe frame: eg pipe diameters and materials used.

Warm Regards, 

[mondy]

Hi there @Grub80, Your latest pics seem to show a metal frame rather than PVC. Can you please advise details of that version? Many thanks.